Green to Gray: An Environmental Anthology is an Eclectic Collection of Fiction and a Call to Action

There have been some excellent anthologies featured on Open Book, and many of those have had wide-ranging themes and focuses, from terrifying campfire tales by acclaimed Indigenous authors to erotic yarns from some of the most celebrated writers in CanLit. 

So, we're very excited to highlight another spectacular collection from a cast of talented authors, this time with Green to Gray: An Environmental Anthology (Guernica). The eclectic stories gathered here speak to the most pressing environmental issues of our time, with an eye to climate change and threats to the natural world. But these stories aren't just worrisome fables about doom and gloom. Instead, some crackle with humour and wry wit, and others are beautiful and poetic throughout. 

Whatever the mood or form, all of these works capture the essence of what it means to live in a time of environmental crisis, and show that it is time to make change and take action. 

To talk more about this exceptional anthology, and his own writing influences, co-editor Timothy Niedermann takes on our Storytellers Fiction Interview. Check it out right here!

Open Book:

Which authors have inspired you and/or influenced your work?

Timothy Niedermann:

The two writers who have influenced me the most are, undoubtedly, Ernest Hemingway and E.B. White. Both wrote concise prose with no wasted words. In a similar vein are Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. For novels, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, and Robertson Davies. For stories, Hemingway is my greatest inspiration. I read his stories when I was young, and they continue to reverberate within me. Recently I have read Katherine Mansfield’s work and started reading Alice Munro. Two novels that have had an influence on me are Jane Austen’s Emma and Independent People by Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness. 

OB:

How have you bent or broken the rules of the established literary lineages to develop your own style and voice?

TN:

I generally follow the journalistic rule of “show, don’t tell” to draw the reader in more closely to the narrative. Because of this, my prose is quite visual. I also keep dialogue simple and direct, and I try not to use “he/she said,” again, to keep the effect on the reader more immediate. 

OB:

Do you see your work or work like it helping to forge a new path in CanLit or the broader literary landscape?

TN:

As an American who has lived and raised his children in Canada, I am bringing a mixed set of sensibilities to Canadian writing. One project I am working on is that of a Canadian man forced to look into his American draft-dodger father’s past. (I was also in the American draft.) 

OB:

Do you draw from family or community stories in your work? If so, how?

TN:

I think it is impossible not to bring family and community into one’s work, for the simple reason that family and community shape our emotional understanding of people and the world. In my case, I am lucky to have grown up in a very close knit semi-rural community inhabited by all sorts of interesting characters, from university professors to farmers. I have also inherited vast amounts of family history and genealogical material, which is giving me insight into the humanity of relatives whom I never knew.

OB:

What is the next story you are working on, whatever form it may take?

TN:

I am working on a novel, entitled A Searcher Abroad, about the experiences of an American woman, an artist, as a Red Cross searcher during the First World War. A searcher was a nurse who was given a list of missing soldiers and went to hospitals and battlefields to find out who on the list was living and who was dead or captured. It is based on the memoir of a family friend, whom I actually met once. The novel explores how the woman’s wartime experinces affectd her approach to her art. 

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Timothy P. Niedermann is a graduate of Kenyon College and attended the Albert-Ludwigs Universitaet in Freiburg, Germany. He also holds a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University Law School. A professional editor for most of his career, Mr. Niedermann has edited magazines, books, and scholarly journals and has dealt with subject matter ranging from sports to law to public policy to celebrity biography. He has been a Bass Writing Tutor at Yale University and taught communications at McGill University. He is the author of two novels: A Purer Evil and Wall of Dust. A native New Englander by birth, he divides his time between Bethany, Connecticut, and Montreal, Quebec.